Focus Features

67 years ago today, Canadian body horror auteur David Cronenberg was born in Toronto, Ontario. Growing up as part of a middle class Jewish family, Cronenberg showed creative promise, and took guidance from his father, Milton – a journalist who wrote a local newspaper column – and his Dutch-born mother Esther, who was a rehearsal pianist for the Canadian National Ballet. Following their lead, he wrote short stories (which, unsurprisingly given his output as a filmmaker, were decidedly creepy) and played classical guitar until he was 12. Science was also heavily promoted in the Cronenberg household and it was that subject which young David chose as his major when he enrolled at the University of Toronto. The future director, however, became “spiritually disenchanted” with what he was studying, and so switched to the literature program. Moving in more bohemian circles, Cronenberg became interested in cinema and the avant garde, and started a film a cooperative. His first forays into filmmaking - the shorts Transfer (1966) and From the Drain (1967) - showed that, despite his disillusionment with science, he was still utterly fascinated by it. In these films, he explored the physical and moral problems of advancements in science and technology, just as he would again and again in his body of work, from Rabid to The Fly to eXistenZ.

67 years ago today, Canadian body horror auteur David Cronenberg was born in Toronto, Ontario. Growing up as part of a middle class Jewish family, Cronenberg showed creative promise, and took guidance from his father, Milton – a journalist who wrote a local newspaper column – and his Dutch-born mother Esther, who was a rehearsal pianist for the Canadian National Ballet. Following their lead, he wrote short stories (which, unsurprisingly given his output as a filmmaker, were decidedly creepy) and played classical guitar until he was 12. Science was also heavily promoted in the Cronenberg household and it was that subject which young David chose as his major when he enrolled at the University of Toronto. The future director, however, became “spiritually disenchanted” with what he was studying, and so switched to the literature program. Moving in more bohemian circles, Cronenberg became interested in cinema and the avant garde, and started a film a cooperative. His first forays into filmmaking - the shorts Transfer (1966) and From the Drain (1967) - showed that, despite his disillusionment with science, he was still utterly fascinated by it. In these films, he explored the physical and moral problems of advancements in science and technology, just as he would again and again in his body of work, from Rabid to The Fly to eXistenZ.